NAIROBI (Reuters) – Kenya’s president promised on Thursday to take personal charge of a battle against corruption and said anyone in office cited in a report by an anti-graft watchdog should step aside pending investigation, regardless of their rank.

President Uhuru Kenyatta made the fight against graft a priority on taking office in 2013, but critics say he has failed to sweep out corrupt officials in a nation where corruption is seen as a major obstacle to business and law enforcement.

NAIROBI, March 25 (Reuters) – A Somali businessman is
betting on a biometric fingerprint system to keep alive vital
money transfer firms which face closure after Western banks cut
ties due to fears remittance cash may be channelled to militant
groups.

Somalia’s leaders say the closure of money transfer
companies would be disastrous for a nation where millions depend
on remittances from family members abroad to buy food, pay for
schools and set up businesses.

NAIROBI/KIGALI (Reuters) – Few world leaders transform their own nations, let alone create a model that dozens of other countries seek to emulate. Singapore’s Lee Kuan Yew, who died this week aged 91, did both.

The economic miracle he masterminded is regularly cited by world leaders. And for many poorer nations in Africa and elsewhere, the Asian state offered lessons that were not imposed by institutions such as the World Bank or cooked up by former colonial powers.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Oil prices would probably need to rise to about $75 to $85 a barrel from around $60 currently for Tullow Oil (TLW.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Africa Oil (AOI.TO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) to go ahead with their Kenyan project, the chief executive of Africa Oil said.

CEO Keith Hill told the Reuters Africa Investment Summit he was confident that crude prices would recover to around those levels long before a final investment decision, due by the end of 2016, is made.

NAIROBI, Feb 17 (Reuters) – Regional carriers Daallo
Airlines and Jubba Airways profited independently for years in
one of the world’s toughest markets, competing on routes to
war-torn Somalia that most avoided.

Yet as the guns fall silent, the rivals face a new battle
that has pushed them to merge: competition from big
international carriers such as Turkish Airlines, Ethiopian
Airlines and flydubai, muscling into Somali airspace.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Chinese workers mingle with Ethiopians putting the finishing touches to a metro line that cuts through Addis Ababa, one of a series of grand state infrastructure projects that Ethiopia hopes will help it mimic Asia’s industrial rise.

Brought to its knees by “Red Terror” communist purges in the 1970s and famine in the 1980s, Ethiopia has been transformed in the last quarter century, becoming one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) – Chinese workers mingle with Ethiopians putting the finishing touches to a metro line that cuts through Addis Ababa, one of a series of grand state infrastructure projects that Ethiopia hopes will help it mimic Asia’s industrial rise.

Brought to its knees by “Red Terror” communist purges in the 1970s and famine in the 1980s, Ethiopia has been transformed in the last quarter century, becoming one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.

ADDIS ABABA, Feb 4 (Reuters) – Ethiopian banks and
microfinance firms are launching mobile money services, helping
reach swathes of the population that now have little access to
branches or services, the mobile technology providers and banks
said.

The launch of the services, which allow customers to make
payments or receive money via a mobile that is linked to a bank
account, mirrors technology used in other African nations that
has drawn millions of people into the financial system.

NAIROBI (Reuters) – Governments and international organisations plan to meet in March to work out how to rebuild three West African nations whose economies have been shattered by Ebola, a U.N. envoy said on Thursday.

The number of newly detected cases of Ebola virus infection has been dropping sharply in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia in recent weeks. But the three countries are still reeling from the impact of the outbreak.

About Edmund

"Responsible for Reuters coverage from Egypt and Sudan, and overseeing operations of the Cairo-based Reuters Arabic language service. Previously was Bureau Chief, Iran. Have worked throughout the Middle East for most of the past 15 years, including covering the Iraq war and Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Have also covered financial and energy affairs, holding positions that inlude equities reporter in London."